Court Grants House GOP Request To Delay Its Anti-Obamacare Lawsuit

A federal appeals court will delay action on a House GOP lawsuit that aimed to take away subsidies the federal government grants to insurance companies to provide coverage to low-income Americans.

House Republicans asked for the delay after they won the House, the Senate and the White House in the November election and repealing the Affordable Care Act legislatively appeared to be within reach.

As TPM has previously reported, how the Trump administration and House Republicans work out the cost-sharing payments that are the focus of the lawsuit could be an early tell of how aggressive the administration will be in dismantling Obamacare.

House Republicans filed their lawsuit in 2014 as the latest in a string of conservative legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The House GOP argued that President Barack Obama’s health care law violated the Constitution because it appropriated the subsidies without Congress’ approval. Under the Affordable Care Act, the government helps offset the cost insurers incur when they cover low-income Americans.

A federal district judge ruled in favor of the House Republicans, and the case was on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. The lawsuit would have affected 7 million individuals, the Huffington Post reported. Experts argued that if the lawsuit were successful, it could throw the individual insurance marketplace into a tailspin as insurers may have pulled out.